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MBA battery only lasting 4 hours

D

dperel15

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 29, 2013
10
0
MBA 2013 (newest model), 13 inch, 4gb ram, 128gb SSD is only holding battery charge for 4 hours.

It used to hold the charge for 12+ hours (sometimes got 13 hours out of it!) but now it is only lasting for 4 hours or less after a full charge. I've had this laptop for about 2 months and have 20 charging cycles registered in system profiler.

I am running mavericks DP8 (12 hr charge was realized on DP5,6,7,8) and do pretty standard web browsing. iTunes, mail, calendar, and iMessage running in the background. I checked system profiler, condition of battery is "Normal" and checked activity monitor and the only app using significant power is safari (app nap is enabled therefore other apps using very little power).

Anyone know what this could be?

Thanks
 
Safari can be a power hog, try uninstalling/disabling Flash player as a 1st step (i uninstalled it completely from my MacBook Pro and the battery life gain was a substantial 2hrs +, this could be a bigger gain on the lower spec CPU in an Air)

Either that or make sure you CLOSE safari, don't "nap" it, some things like scripts on a page, a flash or Java advert etc etc, can keep it "awake" processor intensive and therefore chewing battery life.

Failing that, Roll back to Mountain lion, if the problem persists at that point, get it into an apple store for a replacement, "could" be a faulty battery, but my best guess "bet" is on FlashPlayer and Safari
 
dperel15 said:
MBA 2013 (newest model), 13 inch, 4gb ram, 128gb SSD is only holding battery charge for 4 hours.

It used to hold the charge for 12+ hours (sometimes got 13 hours out of it!) but now it is only lasting for 4 hours or less after a full charge. I've had this laptop for about 2 months and have 20 charging cycles registered in system profiler.

I am running mavericks DP8 (12 hr charge was realized on DP5,6,7,8) and do pretty standard web browsing. iTunes, mail, calendar, and iMessage running in the background. I checked system profiler, condition of battery is "Normal" and checked activity monitor and the only app using significant power is safari (app nap is enabled therefore other apps using very little power).

Anyone know what this could be?

Thanks
Click to expand...

you're using a beta version of the OS?
 
Nightarchaon said:
Safari can be a power hog, try uninstalling/disabling Flash player as a 1st step (i uninstalled it completely from my MacBook Pro and the battery life gain was a substantial 2hrs +, this could be a bigger gain on the lower spec CPU in an Air)

Either that or make sure you CLOSE safari, don't "nap" it, some things like scripts on a page, a flash or Java advert etc etc, can keep it "awake" processor intensive and therefore chewing battery life.

Failing that, Roll back to Mountain lion, if the problem persists at that point, get it into an apple store for a replacement, "could" be a faulty battery, but my best guess "bet" is on FlashPlayer and Safari
Click to expand...

thanks ill give those options a shot. reverting back to mountain lion is definitely something i was thinking about!

----------
DisplacedMic said:
you're using a beta version of the OS?
Click to expand...

yes i'm using developer preview 8
 
the more research i do, the more it seems like the problem is safari/flash player plugin. "safari web content" in activity monitor takes over 100% CPU (between 100 and 120%). however, i don't know whether this is actually normal or not. i usually have several tabs open (10+) but am only keeping 2 open for now to see if it'll make a difference
 
problem persists..... any other options? my last resort is to go back to mountain lion....
thanks
 
My MBA (2012, bought on sale right after WWDC 2013) and with Mavericks DP8 my battery life is just crap. But at idle, @ 93% it says I have 7:40 remaining and that is with chrome open.

Really hope Mavericks GM is much improved over DP8 like iOS 7 was from the betas to GM.
 
it seems like my battery was also WAY too hot (90 degrees). the 100% CPU usage by safari is something that throws me off. installed google chrome, quit safari, and im back at 10hr battery life. i already feel my computer cooling down.
i'm a big fan of safari however and would like to be able to use it again. when i go to activity monitor, the culprit seems to be "Safari web content (Not Responding)" and hogging up all cpu power.

Any solutions to resolve this would be great, at least i can say with certainty that that's the problem.
 
dperel15 said:
the more research i do, the more it seems like the problem is safari/flash player plugin. "safari web content" in activity monitor takes over 100% CPU (between 100 and 120%). however, i don't know whether this is actually normal or not. i usually have several tabs open (10+) but am only keeping 2 open for now to see if it'll make a difference
Click to expand...
There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.
​
The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
 
chabig said:
That's not your last resort. Your first option should be to uninstall Flash.
Click to expand...

thanks chabig, it seems though that flash isn't the problem. like i said, now using chrome and the battery is back to normal and the computer is MUCH cooler. weird. i didn't have this problem with safari before. 100% charged with 11:46 remaining, makes sense now!
 
Glad to hear that. So maybe it's a Safari issue for you that will be fixed in the final release.
 
Glad you narrowed it down. But, who would have thought that Apple's browser could be such a power hog:eek:

Lou
 
flowrider said:
Glad you narrowed it down. But, who would have thought that Apple's browser could be such a power hog:eek:

Lou
Click to expand...

Its almost as bad as IE on windows , Chrome of Firefox, in that order, and having flash un-installed are the best way to increase battery life, and keep the system cool.

Something in the safari code is letting it, or its plugins, or java, or flash runaway with the CPU cycles, making for a hot, battery draining, slowed system due to CPU thermal cut off.
 
I'm having a somewhat similar problem.

I used to show 12 to 13 hours on a full charge. My Mac is now 15 weeks old (2013, 13", 256gb, 8GB RAM). Right now it's at 98% charge and showing just over 9 hours.

Brightness is set to 3. That's pretty dark.

Browser: Firefox, with 10 tabs open

Safari is NOT open at all. It's not snoozed...it is not running (yes, I checked).

No IM programs running.

Dropbox is never allowed to stay running (yes I check).

The drop in battery life has occurred over the last few weeks. It was excellent and then it started dropping.

Don't know the reason for it, but I'm displeased because it's supposed to get 12 hrs with very little running.
 
dperel15 said:
MBA 2013 (newest model), 13 inch, 4gb ram, 128gb SSD is only holding battery charge for 4 hours.

It used to hold the charge for 12+ hours (sometimes got 13 hours out of it!) but now it is only lasting for 4 hours or less after a full charge. I've had this laptop for about 2 months and have 20 charging cycles registered in system profiler.
==========================================

I have a 13 inch, 8gb ram, 512gb SSD and had exactly the same problem.

I read dozens of comments in 'Apple Discussions' about the 'black screen of death'...many guessed it was caused by Google Chrome. But no real correlation there. Finally, I checked my Battery status. 'BATTERY SERVICE' needed. Ah..ha! My month old 48 cycle battery was kaput. Took the MacBook Air into the local genius bar....they had to send away for a battery. Went home broke the news to the key user (daughter). She and my wife raised holy hell with Apple on the phone and after a long, long conversation Apple agreed to take back the computer and send us a new one. I thank Apple for that.

I do wish I could warn Apple though that whichever contractor is providing batteries for this model may have SERIOUS issues meeting the key selling point of the MBA...that being a state-of-the-art long service battery.

So, in a word...YES....I had the same issues as you. Oh, and just for the interest of the readers I had a Samsung display, Samsung RAM and a Samsung SSD. For whatever that may be worth. I don't care so much about that as I am HOPING the next MBA just works.
:mad:
Click to expand...
 
ritmomundo said:
ClickToFlash (Safari plugin).
Click to expand...

that plugin is part of safari 7 (i think) and is automatically launched when on battery.

i'm now using chrome, 15 tabs open, streaming music from itunes match, mail, calendar, dropbox, and imessage open, 99% battery and 9hrs remaining....seems to have fixed the issue. i was still hoping to get 11+hrs given that it's only 8-10 weeks old. maybe it's because of the heavy usage.
 
ritmomundo said:
No it's not. I'm not sure what you're thinking of.
Click to expand...

not sure what you are talking about either...

UPDATE: 2 hours later, 80% remaining and 8:42 remaining on battery. If you do the math seems legit. don't use safari i guess!
 
dperel15 said:
that plugin is part of safari 7 (i think) and is automatically launched when on battery.
Click to expand...
That's not true. ClickToFlash is a 3rd party plugin or extension that is not part of Safari. If installed and activated, it launches with Safari, whether on battery or AC power.
 
After two months owning MBA 2013 13" i have done battery callibration two days ago. Charged fully and needed to discharge it to 0%. What i can say that damn it didnt want to die. Watched two films (4 hours in total), watched a lot of youtube videos, surfing the net, email, office documents editing, radio via itunes and usage took 11 hours and 5 minutes.
For me so far no problems with battery, try to check what processes drains your battery or try to reinstall os x
 
Edgabimbam said:
After two months owning MBA 2013 13" i have done battery callibration two days ago. Charged fully and needed to discharge it to 0%.
Click to expand...
Simply discharging and recharging isn't the same thing as calibration. Also, the built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries in older Apple notebooks.

Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery. Just make sure you don't run on AC power exclusively, as your battery needs to be used regularly to stay healthy.
​
The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
 
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